The churches of Christ Greet You (Romans
A most popular
tradition
of religious men today is the so-called Sinner’s Prayer. The origin of
this
doctrine is not clear, but it is clear that this teaching has no
Biblical
authority whatsoever when applied to the alien sinner (Col. 3:17). We
have
all heard television evangelists ask the audience to say a prayer with
them
in order to call Jesus into their heart and be saved. Why is it that
every
time this prayer is uttered, it is never the same prayer? In fact, it
varies
greatly from false teacher to false teacher.
If you were in the
town
of Damascus two thousand years ago, and found yourself in the same room
with
Saul of Tarsus, what would you have heard uttered from his lips in
prayer
(Acts 9)? Saul prayed for three days (Acts 9:9, 11). Saul believed in
Christ,
calling Him Lord (Acts 9:6). If anyone could have been saved through
the
avenue of prayer, it would have been Saul. As we look to an account of
his
conversion in Acts 22, we will notice Saul was yet in his sins after
three
days of prayer. His sins "were not" washed or remitted until he obeyed
the
preaching of Ananias and was baptized
(Acts 22:16).
On the day of
Pentecost
(Acts 2), Peter stood up with the eleven and proclaimed the words of
the
prophet Joel, “whosoever shall call upon the name
of
the Lord shall be saved." Did Joel reveal what must be done to
call
upon His name? NO! (Acts 2:16‑21). In God’s wisdom He waited until the
right
time to allow the apostles of Christ (Peter and the eleven) to revealed the meaning of Joel's prophetically
recorded statements (Acts 2:22‑37). Under great distress and discomfort
because of the preaching of this new revelation, some asked, "men and
brethren what shall
we do?" in reference to their sin and conduct (Acts 2:37). Did Peter
say
unto
them "repent and pray"? NO! He commanded them to “repent and be
baptized…for
the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38).
This is in complete
harmony
with the words of Christ before He left this earth (Matt. 28:19‑20;
Mark
16:15-16; Luke 24:47). Those on the day of Pentecost were saved because
they
gladly received the word and were baptized (Acts 2:41). Those that
gladly
receive (believe and obey – Heb. 5:8-9) the Gospel message are the
recipients
of God's grace (John 1:12; Rom. 1:16‑17; 5:1‑2; 6:1‑18; 1 Cor. 1:18,
21).
One must be in Christ to be a partaker of His blessings (Eph. 1:3); one
of
those blessings is the power of prayer. The alien sinner will not be
able
to use prayer to get into Christ (John 9:31). The way into Christ is to
be
baptized into Him (Rom. 6:2‑6; Gal. 3:26‑27).